Former President Jimmy Carter recently called it \u201cone of the stupidest rulings ever consummated or perpetrated on the American people.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 President Obama was equally blunt in his own condemnation of the controversial Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United<\/em> case, calling it a \u201cmajor victory . . . \u00a0for powerful interests that marshal their power every day . \u00a0. \u00a0. \u00a0to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve already seen how the decision has opened the floodgates to the outsized influence of corporations and secret money in our political dialogue by allowing special-interest groups to spend unregulated, unlimited contributions on campaign and issue ads.<\/p>\n

CommonDreams, a watchdog organization, has been closely tracking the effects of the case.\u00a0 Their conclusion?<\/p>\n

In the wake of this decision, creative new techniques in the way election money is spent \u2013 and hidden \u2013 by outside groups have proliferated . . . After Citizens United<\/em>, lobbyists can threaten that clients will spend millions on ads if senators or representatives do not do what the lobbyist wants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ramifications of the Citizens United<\/em> decision could get even darker. Get ready for another body blow to representative government and the inviolability of a citizen\u2019s right to vote free from coercion and indoctrination in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Prior to the Citizens United <\/em>decision in January 2010, the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) allowed corporations and businesses to communicate and solicit political views only with shareholders, executives, and administrative personnel.\u00a0 Under FECA such interaction with rank-and-file employees was clearly prohibited. Post Citizens United<\/em>, that firewall is gone.<\/p>\n

Captive-audience techniques and subtly coercive tactics that attempt to influence employees’ voting choices have been tried in past election cycles, although illegal at the time. As recently as the the 2008 elections, at individual locations of two behemoths of corporate America \u2013 McDonald\u2019s and Wal-Mart \u2013 management was reported to have crossed the indoctrination rubicon.<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Canton, Ohio,\u00a0 the owner of a McDonald\u2019s franchise\u00a0 sent out a letter to employees, in the same envelope containing their paychecks, indirectly advocating a vote for Republican candidates.\u00a0 The letter clearly stated management\u2019s position with these words: \u201cIf the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits . . . if others are elected, we will not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wal-Mart<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to employees at one Maryland Wal-Mart, although managers did not specifically tell employees how to vote during a pre-election employee meeting, it was made clear that a vote for Democrats and then\u2013Senator Obama would have meant easing the process of unionization and fewer jobs at Wal-Mart due to soaring labor costs.<\/p>\n

Koch Industries<\/strong><\/p>\n

As reported in the article \u201cBig Brothers:\u00a0 Thought Control at Koch,\u201d written by Mark Ames and Mike Elk (The Nation, <\/em>May 2011), prior to the recent midterm elections, a letter was sent to almost 50,000 Koch employees. The letter included a list of \u201cKoch-endorsed state and federal candidates\u201d and \u201cwarnings about the dire consequences to their families, jobs, and country should they choose to vote otherwise.\u201d \u00a0In yet another incident, it has been reported that a Koch subsidiary in Portland, Oregon, has had complaints from workers about political and ideological propaganda.<\/p>\n

In an article in The Yale Law Journal Online, Professor Paul M. Secunda of Marquette University Law School explains the difference between the pre\u2013 and post\u2013Citizens United <\/em>landscape:<\/p>\n

Before Citizens United<\/em>, federal election law allowed a company like Koch Industries to talk to officers and shareholders about whom to vote for, but not to talk with employees about whom to vote for.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Following the decision in Citizens United<\/em>, Professor Secunda explains:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Companies like Koch Industries are free to send out newsletters persuading their employees how to vote.\u00a0 They can even intimidate their employees into voting for their candidates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To date, only one state \u2013 Oregon \u2013 has taken action to protect workers from political coercion and captive-audience tactics in the workplace.<\/p>\n

The Worker Freedom Act
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

On January 1, 2010, Oregon passed the Worker Freedom Act (S.B. 519), which grants employees the right to bring action against an employer if the employer fires or penalizes an employee for declining to attend a mandatory meeting held by the employer \u2013 whether it be a meeting that is political, labor-related, or religious in nature.\u00a0 Under the statute, an employee may bring action against the employer for remedies such as reinstatement or back pay. \u00a0Following passage, a legal challenge to the statute was launched by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Associated Oregon Industries but was thrown out on procedural grounds.<\/p>\n

The incidents at McDonald\u2019s, Wal-Mart, and Koch Industries may be an ominous bellwether of what we can expect in the 2012 campaigns. If these tactics become the new norm, making sure we have fair, unbiased, independent, and uncoerced elections just became that much harder.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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